Big win for medical marijuana! Congress is blocking the Justice Department from spending money on interfering with state medical marijuana laws.

Their new budget bill includes a provision known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment. It allows states to continue crafting their own medical marijuana policies without the federal government intervening. The bill funds the government through the end of September, and it is expected to pass this week.

This is the full text of the marijuana provision:

“None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, or with respect to the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico, to prevent any of them from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”

Under this anti-marijuana Trump administration, congress doesn’t seem to have any interest in stepping up federal control over state marijuana laws, even if U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants a crackdown. Lawmakers have been renewing the medical marijuana provision in every consecutive budget since it passed in 2014, and today they may have stopped Jeff Sessions’ anticipated marijuana prohibition in its tracks.

In February, Jeff Sessions issued a warning to states with legalized marijuana, saying at a Justice Department press briefing that states can pass whatever laws they choose, but that it remains a violation of federal law “to distribute marijuana throughout any place in the United States, whether a state legalizes it or not.”

Sessions has also stated that he believes “good people don’t smoke marijuana”, and that weed is only “slightly less awful” than heroin. Yet while last year, heroin killed almost 13,000 people, no one has ever died from marijuana.

The provision Congress made can help medical marijuana patients across the U.S. rest easy knowing their important medicine will not be made illegal to them. Work will not be lost, jobs will be safe, and medical marijuana will continue to serve those in need.

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Eight states and the District of Columbia have recreational marijuana laws, and they are not saved by the language in the budget bill. Sessions still has the potential to take action against states that have legalized recreation marijuana.

Yet while medical marijuana is legal in 29 states and the District of Columbia, cannabis is still illegal at the federal level. This is why people who support medical marijuana are happy about the ongoing legislative protection, yet have their sights set on changing the actual laws.

While this is a great step for marijuana, activists and the industry should continue working to get marijuana federally unscheduled and end prohibition of the plant forever.

Ariana Marisolis a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. She is an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, photographer, writer, hiker, dreamer, and lover of all things sustainable, wild, and free. Ariana strives to bring people closer to their true source, Mother Nature. She graduated The Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree focusing on Sustainable Design and Environmental Science.